Unions have helped establish many of the best response systems to closures and layoffs, including preventing layoffs. Drawing from that experience, we have created a checklist to help union leaders develop a layoff response program that helps workers find and keep good jobs. This guide offers a list of activities and tools that unions can use to plan their layoff-response strategy, access government resources for dislocated workers, and ensure that workers have access to appropriate training, job placement, and support services. Union leaders can also use the checklist to evaluate whether the state's dislocated worker program adequately responds to workers' needs.

What first steps can the union take to set the stage for a successful program?

• Meet with the company to bargain over effects such as extended health benefits and severance pay.
• Create a Workforce Adjustment Committee as soon as layoff notices arrive and begin designing a displaced workers program. If there is a labor-management committee in place, coordinate activities through the committee.
• Establish a peer adviser program to train union members to work with Rapid Response staff as they help enroll laid-off union members in local programs and services and to hold providers accountable for the provision of timely early intervention services.
• Confirm that management has given the union proper notice of layoffs and review advance notification contractual provisions. Review 60-day requirements under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Have alternatives to layoffs been fully explored?

• Require that layoff aversion strategies, such as employee buyout and other opportunities, receive full consideration: the state labor federation or your national or international union can advise you on strategies some unions have used to save their members' jobs.
• Find out whether retraining workers could help the company avoid layoffs or closure, and pursue resources for needed training.
• Conduct a feasibility study to evaluate alternatives (if you have enough advance notice). Contact WED to learn more about this option.

Has the union fully negotiated and implemented benefits from the employer?

• Find out what the collective bargaining agreement provides in the way of protections for those laid off, such as advance notice, extended health insurance, severance pay, supplemental unemployment, pension, etc. Identify and implement those protections and benefits.
• Negotiate over additional benefits, such as supplemental unemployment, training, and other services that can be integrated with the public resources available.
• Identify outstanding issues surrounding workplace safety and health and obtain individual and plant-wide exposure records.

Have all possible resources been made available to workers?

• Make sure all potential public funding resources have been identified: Workforce Investment Act funds, National Emergency Grant funds, Trade Act programs, veterans programs, adult basic education funds, Pell Grants and scholarships, state workforce and economic development funds, union-negotiated resources (i.e., training funds, extended COBRA), other mutually agreed upon funds or benefits (i.e., work-release time, resource centers).
• Find out if workers can obtain assistance from the Trade Adjustment Act and NAFTA/TAA, if layoffs are due to increased directly competitive imports or as a result of trade with Mexico or Canada.
• Find out if workers are entitled to training support and reemployment services through vocational rehabilitation and/or workers' compensation systems.
• Start training as early as possible, while workers are supported by severance pay or unemployment insurance.

Has the union that represents the workers been fully involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of the program and services?

• Insist that state or local layoff Rapid Response staff work closely with the union leadership to assist the workers and companies facing layoffs, and that any meeting or contact with workers include union representation.
• Ensure that the public Rapid Response effort does not interfere with the requirement that an employer negotiate the effects of a closure with the union.
• Work with your local Rapid Response team to have them to hold sessions at your union hall. They usually hold the sessions at the employer’s facility.
• Create Workforce Adjustment Committees with full union participation to develop a comprehensive plan for assisting workers.
• Insist that program design and delivery be based upon informed worker choice.

Are workers informed of the program and services?

• Help plan informational sessions and an outreach plan to inform workers about services.
• Identify workers who are off due to occupational injury or illness and assure they receive proper notification of status, benefits and services.
• Ensure the outreach information is available to a diverse population, including people with disabilities and non-English speakers.

Are program-sponsored activities accessible to workers?

• Make sure the program is conveniently and strategically located) i.e., at a union hall or company site, and that public transportation and adequate parking are available.
• Demand union members receive public benefits in a timely manner and be sensitive to the concerns/needs of documented and undocumented immigrant workers.
• Demand that all services be accessible to workers with disabilities, other special needs and in languages spoken by the workforce.
• Insist on strict confidentiality to build worker trust in the program.

Does the program provide the support services necessary to help workers succeed?

• Provide financial counseling services, such as help in dealing with debt, housing, utilities, etc., as well as stress-management and other counseling services.
• Identify any other support needs for the workers in your shop.
• Identify and address the needs of workers with disabilities, including workers with learning disabilities, occupational injuries and illnesses.
• Ensure that eligible workers in training are provided with support services, i.e., transportation, childcare, income support, job search support groups, and relocation assistance (allowances, information, referrals).

Does the Rapid Response program work with local employers and unions to find or create good jobs for participating workers?

• Ask if the employer doing layoffs has jobs for which successful training would qualify the laid-off worker. Work through the union to start or integrate that training with training offered to still working members.
• Work with the Central Labor Council and its member unions in the region to identify other unionized employers.
• Ask appropriate unions for their help in getting their employers to hire program participants, or work with those unions and their employers within the region to obtain "first source hire agreements" for current and future job openings.

Does the program help workers find good jobs?

• Help program staff get the information they need to match participants to jobs. Make sure they know the participants' skills are the skills employers need.
• Help workers identify transferable skills that employers need.
• Provide accurate and timely labor market information about jobs across a spectrum of skill levels and work experience.
• Provide workers with job-search training and support, including assistance in finding out about job vacancies, understanding the hidden job market, writing resumes, improving interviewing skills and following up on interviews.
• Work with local employers to set up job fairs and other recruitment activities.

Does the program provide training to workers who do not have the necessary skills for a new job on an appropriate career track?

• Help the participants develop individualized training plans, to assess existing skills and identify skills needed for reemployment at a comparable wage.
• Make sure assessments are used to get workers the training they need. Be careful that assessments are not used to screen workers out of training.
• Provide workers' rights training to all participants including rights, responsibilities and remedies regarding discriminatory hiring and employment practices, minimum wage and overtime protections, union membership, Family and Medical Leave Act protections, workers' compensation and unemployment insurance coverage, etc.
• Provide job readiness or skills training that corresponds to real job prospects.
• Integrate basic skills training with occupational training.
• Provide upgrade and retraining in high-wage, high-demand skills and occupations.
• Make sure that training programs are accessible to workers with disabilities. Remember, the law requires programs to make reasonable accommodations at no cost to the participant.

Does the program follow up with workers to ensure that they succeed in their new jobs?

• In unionized workplaces, encourage employers to create and/or supplement on-the-job training programs to help participants strengthen skills while providing training opportunities for incumbent union members as well. Try to create similar programs in non-union workplaces.
• Ensure program follow up with participants and with employers at regular intervals after placement to help trouble-shoot problems. Identify any additional training or assistance new employees need to succeed in their jobs.

Has the program been successful?

• Request evidence of the program's compliance with all the above.
• Request regular reports on the status of laid-off members' job searches and wage-replacement levels.

Have you contacted all the important players?

• The California Labor Federation's Workforce and Economic Development Program can help you contact all of the following:
• Your Central Labor Council or Building Trades Council
• The AFL-CIO Community Services staff representative in your area
• The labor representatives on your state and local Workforce Investment Board
• Your local Rapid Response coordinator, who may not receive notice of layoffs until after employees have been notified